mr president this major disruption in supply is a dramatic one for european citizens european industries and european jobs and it comes on top of the economic crisis
we parliamentarians of this house in our coming european elections will all have to answer questions about what we have done to protect our industries our jobs and our citizens
contrary to some initial opinions the problem concerns political and multilateral entities and is not bilateral and commercial in nature
three years ago when we witnessed the first gas crisis following russia's cutting of energy supplies europe realised its vulnerability and its limitations
already then it became obvious that we need a common eu foreign policy on energy
our group the ppe-de group has supported this idea from the very beginning
it was our group which took the lead by asking for an own-initiative report towards a common european foreign policy on energy which i had the honour to present to this house in september two thousand and seven and which was unanimously supported by all the political groups and adopted almost unanimously
it called for a comprehensive strategy with a precise road map towards a common eu external policy on energy recommending a number of actions to be taken in the short term solidarity mechanisms unity in defending our interests more efficient energy diplomacy and in the medium term diversification including nabucco storage investments and interconnections
some of our recommendations have been addressed albeit belatedly in the commission's second strategic energy review
we welcome this and also the efforts of the czech presidency to solve the current crisis and to mediate between the two sides
however this is not enough if we are to avoid similar situations in the future and this will only be possible if we equip ourselves with a truly common eu energy security policy and solidarity which would offer lasting sustainable and systemic solutions
it means the combined weight of member states represented by the european commission in negotiations and a single eu voice vis-à-vis our partners be they producers or transit countries
meanwhile we could envisage buying gas directly from russia at the russian-ukrainian border
i have two questions for the president-in-office and the commission
commissioner piebalgs and deputy prime minister vondra could you elaborate on the scenario of the eu stepping in and taking over responsibility with the ukraine for the transit
secondly what pressure instruments does the eu possess
what action could we take in response
our group would expect the presidency and the commission to undertake swift and radical actions and measures vis-à-vis our energy partners russia and ukraine to restore gas supplies
our group will ask parliament to be closely and permanently involved even during the campaign and until the elections
i would inform you that we have established a contact group between the european parliament the russian parliament and the ukrainian parliament
